Illiterate
[ɪ'lɪt(ə)rət] or [ɪ'lɪtərət]
Definition
(noun.) a person unable to read.
(adj.) lacking culture, especially in language and literature .
(adj.) not able to read or write .
Edited by Claudette--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Ignorant of letters or books; unlettered; uninstructed; uneducated; as, an illiterate man, or people.
Checker: Ophelia
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Uninstructed (in books), unlettered, unlearned, untaught, ignorant.
Checked by Beth
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See LITERARY]
Typist: Tim
Definition
adj. not learned: uninstructed: ignorant.—n.pl. a term used to designate those persons who are unable to read or write or both.—adv. Illit′erately.—ns. Illit′erateness Illit′eracy state of being illiterate: want of learning.
Inputed by DeWitt
Examples
- A vague, very simple Christianity pervaded the illiterate peasant life, mixed with much superstition. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Of course these peoples out of Asia were totally illiterate and artistically undeveloped. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Why are the masses of China to-day, and why have they always been, in spite of an exceptionally high level of natural intelligence, illiterate? H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- No amount of charters, direct primaries, or short ballots make a democracy out of an illiterate people. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- He was comparatively illiterate, he knew little or no Greek. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Bradford had been bred to it, and was very illiterate; and Keimer, though something of a scholar, was a mere compositor, knowing nothing of presswork. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- And I have no doubt that he _will_ thrive, and be a very rich man in timeand his being illiterate and coarse need not disturb _us_. Jane Austen. Emma.
- Outside the temples the world was still a world of blankly illiterate and unspeculative human beings, living from day to day entirely for themselves. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Now I am twenty-eight, and am in reality more illiterate than many school-boys of fifteen. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- She saw him as she introduced him to her friends--uncouth, illiterate--a boor; and the girl winced. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- This institution of the ostracism has immortalized one obscure and rather illiterate member of the democracy of Athens. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The persuasive powers of this illiterate savage were remarkable. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- There is no unbroken stratum of illiterates. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Editor: Maureen